Chicago-area school district defies government on transgender access

CHICAGO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - A suburban Chicago high-school
district is defying federal rules by denying a transgender
student unrestricted access to a girls' locker room in a case
that could cost the district millions of dollars in aid and
shape a national standard on the issue.

The Township High School District 211, with seven high
schools in the suburbs west of Chicago, has provided separate
spaces for transgender students to change and shower, but it has
refused to go further, saying the privacy needs of other
students were at stake.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which filed
a complaint in 2013 on behalf of a transgender student who
identifies as female, has said the arrangement is discriminatory
and that it stigmatizes transgender students.

Negotiations between the district and the Department of
Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) have failed to resolve
the impasse.

The issue may come to a head on Monday when the OCR
announces its findings. If it says the district's arrangement
violates gender equality rules, the schools may lose $6 million
in federal funding and clarify a murky regulatory area.

"Having a finding and analysis from the Department of
Education specific to locker rooms will certainly have a
national impact in terms of telling school districts around the
country what they should be doing," said John Knight, a lawyer
with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

The Illinois case comes at a time of expanding awareness of
transgender issues, due in part to the high-profile transition
of Caitlyn Jenner, the reality TV star and former Olympic
athlete once known as Bruce. More and more states have made it
illegal to discriminate against transgender people.

The Illinois case is not the first case of its kind. In 2013
and 2014, two California school districts that adopted similar
policies eventually settled with the government, agreeing to
allow transgender students unrestricted access to restrooms and
locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

Schools from Ohio to Missouri have also wrestled to shape
rules over locker room and restroom access that conform with
Title IX, a federal law on sex discrimination in public schools.

A finding in the Illinois case could clarify what the
federal law requires. The Department of Education investigated
the complaint and in July ordered the district to give the girl
unrestricted access.

The girl, whose name has not been made public, has
identified as female from a young age and has been living
full-time as a female for seven years, the ACLU said.

For its part, the district has defended how it meets the
needs of transgender students. They are listed under their
preferred gender and can play on the sports teams of the gender
they identify with, spokesman Thomas Petersen said.

"This is an emerging and critical matter for school
districts everywhere," Daniel Cates, superintendent for the
district with 12,500 students, wrote in an op-ed piece in the
Daily Herald newspaper this week.

"This is not the time for a federal agency to determine a
course that removes reasonable, dignified, tested and workable
solutions from school districts," he said.

He said the OCR was bullying schools into settlements with
the threat of revoking funds for lunch programs for poor
students. Even so, he said the district was prepared to lose its
funding.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian
legal group, sent a letter of support this week to the school
district, saying it was not violating federal rules.

"Protecting students from inappropriate exposure to the
opposite sex is not only perfectly legal, it's a school
district's duty," Matt Sharp, a lawyer for the alliance, said in
the letter.
(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Frank McGurty)